NEW ZEALAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Josh Williams, Anderson Lloyd
6. Climate-Friendly Investment Support 6.1 Renewable Energy New Zealand already has a relatively low-emitting electricity system, with 87% of electricity generated in 2022 coming from renewable sources. To ensure that the country continues to meet demand for elec - tricity while phasing out fossil fuels, the Climate Change Commission has suggested that generation that can supply over 1TWh per year will need to be built. While the new government has discarded the previous government’s plans to build a NZD16 billion pumped hydro scheme and hydroelectric battery on the South Island’s Lake Onslow, it has signalled its intent to continue to invest in New Zealand’s renew - able energy infrastructure and to amend the RMA to include measures that will help increase renewable energy. The Bill governing the new government’s poli - cies in this area and is expected to be introduced at the end of 2024. 6.2 Other Support New Zealand does not provide policy/regulatory and/ or other support for the uptake of other forms of cli - mate-friendly investment.
generally accepted standard of climate change due diligence for M&A or financing transactions. Where climate change due diligence is required, a lender will rely on the relevant borrower to complete the required due diligence, and may seek reliance on any formal reports prepared by the borrower’s advisers in this respect. For a property transaction, climate change due dili - gence work focuses on consultation with and receiv - ing information from relevant local authorities about a particular property’s susceptibility to adverse weather and its effects. Such weather events are becoming increasingly common as a result of climate change, and due diligence would typically involve investiga - tions into a particular property’s susceptibility to flooding, subsidence, coastal erosion and other simi - lar weather events. Due diligence would also involve discussions with a vendor of an area to gain insight into historical weather patterns. The property title will also be checked to see whether any part of the prop - erty has been registered in the ETS.
76 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook